San Diego Supercomputer Center
SDSC is a UC San Diego research unit operating supercomputers, petabyte-scale storage, and the National Research Platform (88 institutions, 129 locations) for academic, federal, and industry researchers, funded primarily by NSF, DOE, and state grants.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1985
- HeadquartersLa Jolla, United States
- Headcount251–500
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What San Diego Supercomputer Center does
San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an Organized Research Unit of UC San Diego founded in 1985 as one of the National Science Foundation's original supercomputer centers. It architects and operates high-performance computing (HPC) systems, petabyte-scale storage, and AI-integrated computing environments for academic researchers, federal agencies (NSF, DOE, NIH), and industry partners. Core systems include Expanse (5+ PFlop/s, 728 AMD EPYC nodes with NVIDIA V100 GPUs), Voyager (Intel Gaudi AI compute), SDSC Cloud (5.5 PB initial capacity, S3/Swift-compatible), Sherlock Secure Cloud (SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA-compliant), the Triton Shared Computing Cluster (NIST 800-171 compliant), and Cosmos for accelerator democratization. The center also operates the National Research Platform (NRP), a distributed AI-oriented infrastructure spanning 88 institutions across 129 geographic locations, along with research divisions in computational seismology (HPGeoC), wildfire modeling (WIFIRE), internet data analysis (CAIDA), and science gateways (CIPRES, OpenTopography) built on the open-source Hubzero platform.
SDSC's business model is grant-funded rather than commercially revenue-driven. Primary inflows come from federal research grants (NSF, DOE, NIH) and state funding (California Energy Commission), with modest fee-based revenue from storage services ($3.25/month per 100GB), trial accounts, and training programs. Distribution is via the ACCESS national allocation program, the HPC@UC partnership for University of California researchers, the CENIC AIR initiative for California community colleges and state universities, and direct industry service requests. SDSC holds no private investors and is governed by UC San Diego and the UC Board of Regents; in 2024 it was integrated into the newly established Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing, supported by a combined $125 million in philanthropic giving.
The customer and partner base spans academic researchers across UC and the broader U.S. research community, federal program offices, and select industry engagements including General Atomics (FEDER fusion energy data platform), Iron Horse Vineyards (precision agriculture digital twin), and multi-institution medical consortia (AI-driven prostate cancer radiation therapy). Notable recent product launches include the HiAER-Spike neuromorphic computing platform (160M neurons, 40B synapses), the CFDE Cloud Workspace for NIH biomedical datasets, and an Alderbuck Energy solid-state transformer demonstration for AI data center power efficiency under California Energy Commission funding. SDSC has received HPCwire industry recognition in 10+ consecutive years and was recognized in the NSF NAIRR Pilot program in 2024.
San Diego Supercomputer Center firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- San Diego Supercomputer Center
- Legal name
- San Diego Supercomputer Center
- Website
- https://sdsc.edu
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1985
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 251–500 employees
- Short description
- SDSC is a UC San Diego research unit operating supercomputers, petabyte-scale storage, and the National Research Platform (88 institutions, 129 locations) for academic, federal, and industry researchers, funded primarily by NSF, DOE, and state grants.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
San Diego Supercomputer Center industry classification
Industry- Product category
- High-Performance Computing Infrastructure
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Computer Communications Equipment (3576), Computer Storage Devices (3572)
- akta.pro primary industry
- HPC Storage & Parallel File Systems (Lustre/GPFS/Object) (HDACAOAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Storage Virtualization & Software-Defined Storage (SDS) (HDABAEAF), Software-Defined Interconnect (SDI) / SD-WAN Cloud Gateways (HDABALAF), Private Cloud Networking & SDN/NFV Management (HDABABAK), SAN Storage Arrays (HDABAEAA)
Keywords
Where San Diego Supercomputer Center is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- La Jolla
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
San Diego Supercomputer Center business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Federal Research Grants: Primary funding from National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), and other federal agencies for HPC infrastructure and research projects.
- State Funding: Funding from California Energy Commission and other state agencies for specific projects such as energy infrastructure testing.
- Computing Services Revenue: Fee-based access to HPC resources for researchers, including storage services starting at $3.25/month per 100GB.
- Educational Programs: Revenue from training programs, summer institutes, and workforce development initiatives.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Standard On-Demand Storage |
| Subscription | Annual | HPC@UC Program |
| Subscription | Pay-as-you-go | Trial Accounts |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
San Diego Supercomputer Center product offering
Product offeringCore offering
SDSC operates and provides access to high-performance computing (HPC) supercomputers (Expanse, Voyager, NRP, Triton Shared Computing Cluster), secure and compliant cloud storage (SDSC Cloud, Sherlock Secure Cloud), and complementary research computing services including consulting, data management, regulatory compliance support, science gateways, and training. These resources serve academic researchers, industry partners, and government researchers across scientific and engineering disciplines.
Product overview
San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) operates as a platform of high-performance computing systems and services. The core product portfolio includes Expanse (5+ PFlop/s supercomputer with AMD EPYC processors and NVIDIA V100 GPUs), the National Research Platform (distributed AI infrastructure across 88 institutions), SDSC Cloud (petabyte-scale storage with S3/Swift API support), Sherlock Secure Cloud (SOC 2 compliant secure cloud), Voyager and Cosmos (AI-focused accelerator systems), and Triton Shared Computing Cluster (with NIST 800-171 compliance). Legacy systems include Gordon (first flash-memory supercomputer) and Data Oasis (Lustre parallel file system). Supporting infrastructure includes science gateways like CIPRES and OpenTopography, research laboratories such as HPGeoC (computational seismology) and WIFIRE (wildfire modeling), and CAIDA (internet data analysis). These systems are supported by consulting, data management, HPC, storage, and training services.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Expanse
- National Research Platform (NRP)
- SDSC Cloud
- Sherlock Secure Cloud
- Triton Shared Computing Cluster (TSCC)
- Voyager
- Cosmos
- Gordon
- Data Oasis
- Hubzero Software Platform
- OpenTopography Science Gateway
- CIPRES Science Gateway
- HPC and Data Science Consulting Services
- Data Center Colocation Services
- HPC@UC Program
- ACCESS Program Participation
- CENIC AIR Distributed AI Infrastructure
Quantifiable outcome
- 4% energy-efficiency improvement targeted with solid-state transformer deployment
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use San Diego Supercomputer Center
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
San Diego Supercomputer Center technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration2 records
AI capability8 records
Feature7 records
San Diego Supercomputer Center partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
13 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major, minor and flagship.
- Alderbuck EnergycoreAlderbuck Energy will deploy its Nexus Power Unit solid-state transformer at SDSC as part of a California Energy Commission-funded project testing high-voltage DC power architecture for AI data centers, targeting 4% energy efficiency improvement and 50%+ footprint reduction.
- San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E)majorProject partner in the solid-state transformer deployment at SDSC, contributing to the flexible load-capacity planning tool for California policymakers and utilities.
- Good For Others FoundationminorFoundation partner supporting the solid-state transformer project and flexible load-capacity planning tool development.
- CENIC (Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California)coreSDSC and CENIC are developing CENIC AIR, a distributed statewide AI infrastructure designed to provide equitable access to advanced computing for California's 116 community colleges and 23 California State Universities. Under this model, colleges own their hardware while SDSC and CENIC handle centralized operations, security, and support.
- Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)coreTACC collaborated with Johns Hopkins University, Penn State University, and SDSC to launch the CFDE Cloud Workspace, expanding access to biomedical datasets from the NIH Common Fund. The platform aims to democratize data analysis with advanced computational tools and multi-cloud architecture.
- Johns Hopkins UniversitycorePartnership in CFDE Cloud Workspace to expand access to NIH Common Fund biomedical datasets through multi-cloud architecture.
- Penn State UniversitycorePartnership in CFDE Cloud Workspace to democratize access to NIH Common Fund biomedical datasets.
- General AtomicsflagshipGeneral Atomics leads the FEDER initiative (Fusion Energy Data Ecosystem and Repository) to create a standardized national data platform for fusion energy research. SDSC plays a key role in the multimillion-dollar DOE-funded project to unite scattered research data from national laboratories, academic institutions, and industry to accelerate commercial fusion power development.
- Lawrence Livermore National LaboratorycorePartner in the $5M DOE SHAPE Center project to develop impact-resistant metamaterials. LLNL provides supercomputing resources alongside SDSC for computational modeling.
- Colorado School of MinescoreMultidisciplinary team partner in SHAPE Center developing impact-resistant metamaterials with nonlinear properties to dissipate kinetic energy.
- Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC)coreSDSC collaborates with SCEC on state-of-the-art earthquake simulation using HPC resources, including record-setting Magnitude 8.0 simulations and ongoing seismic research.
- UC San Diego Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and ComputingflagshipSDSC is integrated into the new Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing, backed by $125 million in combined giving, to create one of the most advanced university computing operations in the United States.
- OpenTopographycoreSDSC hosts OpenTopography, which received $4 million NSF award to support AI-ready access to topographic data for research and education.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights7 records
San Diego Supercomputer Center competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA): NCSA at the University of Illinois is a peer NSF-funded HPC center with comparable scale (Blue Waters, Delta, IL-HPC), similar academic and federal funding model, and overlapping industry partnership programs.
- National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC): NERSC at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is the primary scientific HPC facility for DOE Office of Science, operating Perlmutter. Directly comparable in mission and federal funding structure to SDSC.
- Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF): OLCF at Oak Ridge National Laboratory operates the Frontier supercomputer — the most powerful in the world. While a DOE national lab rather than NSF-funded, OLCF directly competes for federal HPC allocations and large-scale scientific workloads alongside SDSC.
- Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF): ALCF at Argonne National Laboratory operates the Aurora exascale system under DOE. Comparable to SDSC in mission (scientific HPC), but with larger federal footprint and exascale-class resources.
- Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC): PSC is a joint Carnegie Mellon / University of Pittsburgh HPC center with comparable NSF mission, Bridges and Neocortex systems, and similar academic user base to SDSC.
- Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC): TACC at UT Austin is a direct peer operating national-scale HPC systems (Stampede, Frontera, Lonestar6) for academic researchers. Already identified as a co-partner with SDSC on the CFDE Cloud Workspace biomedical platform.
- ACCESS Cyberinfrastructure: ACCESS is the NSF-funded consolidated allocation and cyberinfrastructure program that pools SDSC, TACC, NCSA, PSC, and other center resources. SDSC participates in ACCESS as both a resource provider and allocator, making it both a peer and a channel.
Broad incumbents
- Microsoft Azure HPC: Azure offers HB-series and ND-series HPC VMs competing for the same AI and scientific compute workloads SDSC serves. While commercial and not academically focused, Azure is the primary commercial alternative for institutions weighing hyperscale vs. SDSC.
- Google Cloud HPC: Google Cloud offers A2/G2 GPU VMs and HPC-friendly storage, with a Google Cloud Research credits program for academia. Comparable commercial alternative for AI and HPC workloads that SDSC supports via NRP and Expanse.
- AWS ParallelCluster / HPC on AWS: AWS provides HPC services (ParallelCluster, Batch, EC2 GPU instances) with significant academic discount programs. Represents the broadest commercial alternative for SDSC's commodity compute workloads.
Market position
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat7 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
San Diego Supercomputer Center social profiles
Digital presenceSan Diego Supercomputer Center compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
San Diego Supercomputer Center financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
San Diego Supercomputer Center leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
San Diego Supercomputer Center funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
San Diego Supercomputer Center M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about San Diego Supercomputer Center
What does San Diego Supercomputer Center do?
SDSC operates and provides access to high-performance computing (HPC) supercomputers (Expanse, Voyager, NRP, Triton Shared Computing Cluster), secure and compliant cloud storage (SDSC Cloud, Sherlock Secure Cloud), and complementary research computing services including consulting, data management, regulatory compliance support, science gateways, and training. These resources serve academic researchers, industry partners, and government researchers across scientific and engineering disciplines.
Is San Diego Supercomputer Center a public or private company?
San Diego Supercomputer Center is a private company. It is classified as state government owned and is currently operating.
When was San Diego Supercomputer Center founded?
San Diego Supercomputer Center was founded in 1985. It employs 251 to 500 people.
Where is San Diego Supercomputer Center based?
San Diego Supercomputer Center is headquartered in La Jolla, United States, in the North America region.
How does San Diego Supercomputer Center make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Federal Research Grants are the primary driver. The others are state Funding, computing Services Revenue and educational Programs.
Who are San Diego Supercomputer Center's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and ACCESS Cyberinfrastructure. Broad incumbents are Microsoft Azure HPC, Google Cloud HPC and AWS ParallelCluster / HPC on AWS.
Does San Diego Supercomputer Center have an API?
Yes. SDSC Cloud supports the RackSpace Swift and Amazon S3 APIs for data storage and access, allowing users to interact with storage using standard cloud object storage protocols.
What industry is San Diego Supercomputer Center in?
San Diego Supercomputer Center's product category is High-Performance Computing Infrastructure. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDACAOAF, HPC Storage & Parallel File Systems (Lustre/GPFS/Object), with a secondary code of HDABAEAF, Storage Virtualization & Software-Defined Storage (SDS). Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 7373.